Over 2,000 “Known or Suspected Terrorists” Removed from U.S., Countless More Remain

While the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) celebrates the removal of over 2,000 Known or Suspected Terrorists (KST) from the United States, the chilling reality is that there are likely many more dangerous criminal aliens still roaming around neighborhoods throughout the nation. That is because under Biden’s disastrous open border policies over 1.7 million Special Interest Aliens (SIA) from over two dozen countries that DHS determined pose a national security threat to the U.S. entered the country, mostly through the Mexican border. This means that, although it is a decent start and Americans should be grateful that the Trump administration is mitigating the damage of Biden’s policies, a few thousand hardly puts a dent in the problem.

From January 20, 2025, to September 9, 2026, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), which operates under DHS, has arrested 2,150 KSTs in the U.S. and deported 2,015, according to an announcement issued this month. Created after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to secure the nation, DHS consists of 22 different federal departments and agencies with over 260,000 employees in areas ranging from border security to emergency response, aviation and cyber security. The goal is to keep America safe, though under Biden the agency seemed to steer away from the mission. A record-breaking 7.6 million illegal aliens entered the country, including hundreds of thousands with serious criminal records and over 1.7 million SIAs from some 26 nations that pose a security threat, including Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Nigeria, Syria, and Turkey, China, North Korea, Kyrgyzstan, Mauritania, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Venezuela. Many SIAs—including some on the U.S. terrorist watchlist—were released inside the country under Biden, risking public safety and national security.

A congressional probe revealed that, among the largely unvetted aliens were at least 382 on the U.S. government’s terrorist watchlist who were released into the country. Among them was an illegal alien from Afghanistan, Mohammad Kharwin, arrested by Border Patrol near Imperial Beach, California in early 2023. Federal agents suspected he was on the U.S. terrorist watchlist because information matched a person on the list. Nevertheless, the feds released Kharwin in the U.S. He flew from Istanbul, Turkey to Mexico City, Mexico before traveling to the U.S. border and, despite red flags, ICE placed him on its non-detained docket along with millions of other illegal aliens and instructed him to report to an agency office in Sacramento, California. Around two weeks later, ICE removed Kharwin from its Alternatives to Detention (ATD) program and DHS allowed him to apply for asylum and work authorization and fly domestically. The Afghan national remained free in the United States for about a year until biometric and biographical information positively identified him on the terrorist watchlist and ICE Fugitive Operations arrested him in San Antonio, Texas. Kharwin is reportedly a member of Hezb-e-Islami, a group responsible for attacks in Afghanistan that killed at least nine American soldiers and civilians from 2013 to 2015.

Thankfully, the days of known terrorists being released inside the country are in the past. Among the thousands removed by the Trump administration are Abraham Hermosillo Alvarez, an illegal alien from Mexico, who was arrested in Omaha, Nebraska and charged with being the ringleader of the failed terrorist plot against Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) Freedom 250 in June. He entered the U.S. on a B-2 visitor visa and failed to depart before it expired in December 2001. The Obama administration granted him Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) in 2014. Another terrorist removed in the last year is Felipe Linares De Oliveira Del Aquilla, an illegal alien from Brazil and commander of two foreign terrorist organizations (FTO), Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC) and Comando Vermelho (CV). Others include Iranians in the U.S. illegally with admitted ties to Hezbollah and a Jordanian terrorist convicted of throwing Molotov cocktails at the homes of Israeli armed forces.

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